Secret Scars of the Past
by TheEliteLabRatsLover
Summary: Overtime, Oliver sees certain scars of Barry's and is left behind to try to put the puzzle pieces together. Or: five times Oliver sees Barry's scars and the one time his whole team does.


**Yeah, yeah, I seriously know that I shouldn't be starting ANOTHER multichap when I can't even get my first ones done, BUT I hope to start writing more. I know, I say that every time but this time I (hopefully) mean it. ;)** **So, this is gonna' be fun! I've been wanting to do this for a while, and finally got inspiration; yay! :D So, I hope you like this and all; yadda yadda. Let me know your thoughts with a review and I'll love ya' for life! ;)**

 **IMPORTANT: This story is slightly an AU. Nothing terribly drastic, but as by the end of this chapter you will have figured out what I meant. But I'm only going to explain everything once the story is over, so, yeah. ;D**

 **PLEASE READ NOTES ABOVE AND BELOW AT THE END. Thank you.**

 **Disclaimer: Nope. I don't own a thing. :D**

* * *

 _The first time Oliver had noticed it, had been right after a failed mission with a meta..._

 _..._

Oliver sighed as he placed his bow down on the table beside him, before turning back around to face both Dig and Barry. He tensed his jaw, watching as Diggle cradled his bleeding right arm to his side, and Barry walked in behind him; blood staining the top part of his suit from a rip in the material on his collarbone that showed a large gash.

They had gone up against a meta-human who was very similar to 'King Shark', but instead of being half-man and half-shark, he was, or maybe _it_ was half-man, half-tiger. _What had Oliver's life even come to anymore?_ He wondered distantly as he heard Felicity's concerned voice.

"What the heck happened out there?" She asked, and Oliver turned back around as the others stopped beside him. Felicity sat in her normal chair, while Caitlin and Cisco stood next to her, Cisco casually leaning on the table while Caitlin stood next to him; worry evident on all of their faces, but mostly Caitlin's.

She immediately headed towards Dig's side, who reluctantly released his injured limb for her to look at.

"The meta sort of...caught us off guard," Barry said sheepishly, a grimace on his face, which Oliver was unsure on whether or not it was from the pain of the gash, or the slight retelling of the mission. Felicity sighed, shaking her head lightly at the information. Oliver turned his attention towards Diggle and Caitlin, the latter of which sighed as she stood straight again.

"I'm afraid that's gonna need a decent amount of stitches." She said, and Dig just nodded in understanding, having already figured on that. "And you," Caitlin began, heading towards Barry who just put his hand up.

"It'll heal." Caitlin sighed.

"It still needs stitches. Mr. Diggle-"

"Dig." Diggle said, a slight grin on his face for having to tell her yet again to not be so formal.

"Dig," Caitlin began again, smiling. "Just head on back and I'll get you patched up." She said, turning back around to face Barry again. "I guess I'll just do yours when I get done with Dig's."

"I can do it, Caitlin. You just go patch up Dig and I'll take care of Barry," Oliver said, and Barry looked at him, brow furrowing just the slightest, and Oliver couldn't help but detect the small look of worry on the speedster's face.

"Um," Caitlin said quietly, biting her lip as she looked at Barry, who just nodded discreetly, but that didn't mean Oliver missed the little exchange. "Okay," She breathed, hanging back a moment as if she didn't quite want to leave, before she stepped away. Oliver frowned a moment, watching as Barry inhaled deeply; a poor attempt at calming himself and acting the same way.

"Okay, well, just take your shirt off and I'll go grab the stuff," Oliver said, waiting an extra moment before leaving to watch Barry's reaction. He just nodded rapidly, forcing a small smile onto his face, before Oliver turned to leave, slightly shaking his head with a frown.

There was no denying that there was something up with that kid. He entered the back part of the 'Arrow Cave' as Felicity and Cisco called it, where Caitlin was gently dabbing anesthetic on Diggle's wounded arm. Oliver started reaching for the other bottle of anesthetic when Caitlin spoke up.

"It won't work," Caitlin declared, not even bothering to look up, and he paused; his hand in mid-air.

"What?"

"The anesthetic," She said, done with the anesthetic as she stood up and looked at Oliver fully. "It doesn't work on Barry. His metabolism's too fast; it'll burn right through it." She stated, and Oliver frowned. He hadn't known that.

"Damn." Diggle muttered under his breath with a shake of his head. "What do you do when he's severely injured?"

"Hope and pray that he passes out," She declared with a sigh and solemn look. Oliver frowned again, exchanging a look with Diggle. They had both heard about some of the things Barry had endured over the past few months, and Oliver couldn't hardly imagine that the kid had endured it all without any anesthetics.

On the island and in Russia, Oliver had gotten accustomed to not having any anesthetics around to dull the pain of an injury, but Barry was just a kid-even if he continuously denied that accusation-who hadn't been used to that sort of thing.

Though, now, Oliver supposes, he was.

At the news, Oliver decided to just grab the necessary supplies; not including the useless local anesthetic. He left the room, heading towards the main table where Barry sat on the side of it, and Oliver sighed when he noticed that he was now changed into different clothes, but still wearing a light blue shirt that was now stained at the top.

"Barry, didn't I tell you to take your shirt off?" Oliver asked, already knowing the answer as he set the supplies down on the table next to them. He was already not in a particularly good mood due to the mission failure, and was not especially up for Barry's antics right now.

"Yeah, but this should work just as well." Oliver crossed his arms.

"Don't you think it would be easier without it?" Barry shrugged lightly with the opposite shoulder of the wound.

"Not...really." Barry said and Oliver shook his head with a frown.

"Fine." He mumbled.

"I already cleaned it," Barry stated, pointing slightly towards the gash, and Oliver nodded; threading the needle.

"Alright," Oliver said, moving into position as Barry slowly pulled his shirt to the side for Oliver to have access to the wound. Barry's jaw clenched, but Oliver took it only as a sign for his discomfort as he pressed the needle to Barry's skin, before pushing it through the inflamed skin; being as gentle as he could, knowing that Barry could feel it completely.

Barry inhaled quietly and sharply, and Oliver continued to weave the skin back together as fast as he could, but knowing that it would be at least a couple of minutes before he could be done.

"So, Barry, I've been thinking," Cisco began, and Barry's attention turned from Oliver's stitching the gash, to the engineer. "We need to start broadening your popularity, and the only way to do _that_ , is to start selling merchandise." Cisco said, voice loudening an octave at his excitement of the idea. Barry chuckled, his grip loosening slightly on his shirt, and Oliver was grateful for the momentary distraction.

"What would you sell? Running shoes?"

"Mmm, I like that, but no, I was thinking of something along the lines of cat litter." Cisco declared, and Barry laughed.

"Why on _earth_ would you do that?" He asked, bewilderment lining his amused voice.

"I don't know, I just thought of a really cool slogan for it and ran with it; pun totally intended, by the way." Cisco stated.

"Oh, yeah? And what's that?" Barry asked, and Oliver continued to weave the skin back together as fast and precise as he could; years of practice being a plus in this situation. Maybe Barry was used to getting stitches, but still, Oliver was making this as fast as possible because _nobody_ enjoyed getting stitches.

Even though, he wasn't even paying attention to what the two were talking about, Oliver still wondered if this is what they did back in Central City; one person distracted Barry while the other person tended to his wounds. Whether or not it was intended, it was working. Barry's grip loosened even more and his body relaxed from it's tense and stiff position of being ramrod straight.

"It zaps smells lightning fast," Cisco said and Barry laughed heartily as Oliver neared the end of the gash.

"If you do that I will _never_ forgive you, man," Barry declared in amusement, his grip on his shirt momentarily forgotten as his hand pulled it even farther down, and it was only then that Oliver's hands stilled. Barry had pulled his shirt further down, revealing white and light pink tinted skin peeking out from behind the baby blue colored shirt.

But that wasn't what particularly caught Oliver's eyes; it was the burn scars of the four letters _ZOOM_ branded into Barry's skin over his heart.

Oliver just stood there for a moment as they talked, completely and utterly still at the sight of the white burn scars.

Oliver knew what brand scars looked like, and from what he could see, that was exactly what Barry had. And why did it say _Zoom_? Barry's greatest enemy? Upon hearing their conversation die down, Oliver immediately resumed doing the stitches, swallowing hard as he tried to forget the sight of those scars. "Oliver?"

"Hmm?"

"You okay? You look a little pale," Barry pointed out, and Oliver glanced up, meeting Barry's worried eyes for only a moment, before resuming his weaving.

"Sorry, just got distracted for a moment," He said, and no, he did _not_ miss the way Barry tensed and how he used his super speed to place his shirt back to normal. It was too late; Oliver had seen it, and he knew that Barry knew that. But Oliver wasn't going to question it; not now.

And that meant that it left Oliver wondering for the rest of that night and further what the heck that scar was supposed to mean.

* * *

 **So I need ideas on how Oliver can see scars of Barry's. I have the final one figured out, but need some help with the middle ones. So if anybody could help I'd love that! Thank you. :)**


End file.
